NBA to vote on expansion to Las Vegas and Seattle

The WNBA is not a product most people want to see. The NBA is, and Seattle was always a tremendous NBA market. It's like any business, facilities gotta stay current or else you get forced out. The city didn't want to help pay for a new arena, which was crazy because the Seahawks and Mariners got a new stadium and a new ball park prior to the Sonics leaving. Might as well have gone for the trifecta lol.

 

I totally get it. The NFL is a business. I’m just saying back when I was kid and followed the NFL into my 40’s. It didn’t have that feel to it. For years, I’d travel to Tempe to watch the Cowboys play the cardinals there. It was like a home game for them. then bam the moved the Cardinals out of the East.

im just curious if it ever gets so “corporate” we could see teams like Greenbay, Detroit, heck even the Cowboys, (staple market teams) get relocated. I think it’ll happen eventually. Especially when the NFL, goes international. You’ll see someplace with big money, like Qatar but the cowboys for billions. lol it’ll be international in a few more years.

 

Yet, they were able to extort money from the taxpayer to build them a new stadium.

What I am pointing out is the chess move the NBA was doing while it's fans were thinking checkers.

NBA gets a new venue and stadium in Oklahoma, and forces one of their largest fan bases to look at the WNBA which is nothing but a business loss.

NBA knew they were able to twist WA taxpayer arm for a new stadium, they also knew they were getting a new stadium and new fan base in OK. What they hoped was the some of Seattle's NBA fanbase would take interest in the money loosing WNBA. They were correct in that assumption. The Seattle Storm losses them less money than any other WNBA team out there.

Again, big sports are about big subsidies. Taxpayers on the hook for all these big stadiums. No one watches the WNBA, and now NBA will negotiate for even more subsidies for a NBA expansion.

 

Oh I doubt that. The Raiders have moved around quite a bit, but they've always been unstable. Green Bay and Dallas have deeply entrenched fans. If there's any chance of a team relocating, it'd be a team like Jacksonville, in which home attendance is inconsistent. They're renovating there stadium so the city is showing a commitment there. I never thought I'd see the day where Oakland, CA would lose the As and the Raiders.

 

Well....the tax payers pay part of it usually. Its pennies on the dollar over a course of many years. It isn't noticeable. For instance, with the new Titans stadium in Nashville, the ownership put up like 600 mil of their own cash. The rest is coming out of tourism taxes in downtown. I personally don't have a problem with it. Fans are willing to spend hundreds, perhaps even thousands for their entertainment so I don't really understand the tax payer gripe, which is pennies over time.

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Because it should be funded by the league and the owners of the teams. If someone has zero interest in sports but just happens to live in a city that has a team why should they be asked to subsidize a stadium that they will never set foot in? Tax payers subsidize 1/3 to 1/2 of construction costs on a new stadium and that’s retarded when you consider how much the owners and the players make.